How much will the legal charges be?

For standard residential property transactions our services can be provided on a fixed fee basis. We will always inform you in our Terms of Business whether or not a fixed fee applies – where a fixed fee does not apply, our Terms will contain an estimate of the likely legal charges based on our prediction of the number of hours work which your transaction(s) will require.

More information about our fees

Who will carry out your work?

Your conveyancing transaction will be handled by a team dedicated team the majority of which have worked for the firm for over 10 years, under the watchful eye of Amanda (“Mandy”) Grundy.

Mandy is a qualified Legal Executive and has over 20 years experience of dealing with property transactions.

What we will need from you

Once you have instructed us we will ask you for a variety of details and documents. These could include:

• Some personal identification;
• The price of the property;
• Any factors that may influence the exact time you want to buy the property (for example, to coincide with school holidays);
• How you are planning to pay for the property.

We will also need to know whether:

• You have applied for a mortgage;
• You plan to carry out work on the property;
• You are buying with someone else;
• You have a property to sell.

What are searches?

We will make various searches, including enquiries with the local authority. These can help to reveal any adverse matters affecting the property such as road improvements and local land charges. If any of our searches show matters of concern, we will let you know.

Leasehold properties

If the property is leasehold (particularly common when buying a flat), there will be detailed lease terms and conditions. We will need to check these carefully and will also make enquiries with the seller’s solicitor of the managing agents of the property about what service charges and management costs you will have to pay.

Should I obtain survey advice?

If you are applying for a mortgage, your mortgage lender will need an independent valuation of the property. Usually they will appoint their own surveyor to do this, but you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation and not a survey. You should consider appointing your own surveyor (possibly the same person as the valuer) to carry out a survey on the property as it is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey reveals that building work is needed, you should tell us as this may allow you to renegotiate the price.

What is exchange of contracts?

This is the crucial moment in the conveyancing process when the agreement between buyer and seller becomes binding. Where you are buying and selling it will be our responsibility to ensure that you exchange contracts on both your purchase and sale at the same time. If you want to withdraw from buying the property after this stage, you may have to pay financial penalties.

What is completion?

This is the final stage in the conveyancing process. Where you are buying we will arrange to transfer the purchase monies to the seller’s solicitors. When we have done that the keys will be released to you. We will pay the Stamp Duty and Land Registry fees for you and register your ownership of the property at the Land Registry.

If you are selling we will ensure that any mortgage is cleared out of the monies received from your buyer, and pay the balance over to you; or, if you are buying a new property, utilise the monies received from your buyer on the purchase and account to you with any balance.